I wake up that morning. I get ready quickly and go to the table for breakfast.
"Bonjour ma mere," Jean walks into the room.
"Bonjour Jean," I say," I am going to the louvre again today, to write the kings biography."
He storms out of the room. I ignore him, there is no point arguing.
I leave the house and the carriage take me to the castle. When I get there I tell the guards that I don't need an escort, I know the way to this library. I spend the whole day reading and writing and I have completed much when the duke enters the room.
"Your highness!" I stand and curtsy.
"I trust that you are comfortable and that everything is to your satisfaction,"He says," Madame Pizan."
"Yes your highness," I reply.
"And what progress have you made?" He asks.
"I have begun a draft and come up with a title your highness," I tell him," The good deeds and morals of King Charles V."
I begin to believe that this may work. That maybe I can be a writer and support myself. I leave the palace excited and nervous.
I hope that I can continue to support Jean and myself. An idea occurs to me. Am I not a woman in a man's world, creating my own destiny and deciding what to do with my life. Wouldn't it be fitting to write about women, and their struggles, and the injustices against them.
I go home and tell Jean this. He says nothing, but smiles, as if he's known this all along and hasn't told me. In my chambers I go to sleep that night and think;
If you would reflect well and wisely, you would realize that those events you regard as personal misfortunes have served a useful purpose even in this worldly life, and indeed have worked for your betterment.
Sometime between 1392 and 1402
I wake up that morning. I get ready quickly and go to the table for breakfast.
"Bonjour ma mere," Jean walks into the room.
"Bonjour Jean," I say," I am going to the louvre again today, to write the kings biography."
He storms out of the room. I ignore him, there is no point arguing.
I leave the house and the carriage take me to the castle. When I get there I tell the guards that I don't need an escort, I know the way to this library. I spend the whole day reading and writing and I have completed much when the duke enters the room.
"Your highness!" I stand and curtsy.
"I trust that you are comfortable and that everything is to your satisfaction,"He says," Madame Pizan."
"Yes your highness," I reply.
"And what progress have you made?" He asks.
"I have begun a draft and come up with a title your highness," I tell him," The good deeds and morals of King Charles V."
I begin to believe that this may work. That maybe I can be a writer and support myself. I leave the palace excited and nervous.
I hope that I can continue to support Jean and myself. An idea occurs to me. Am I not a woman in a man's world, creating my own destiny and deciding what to do with my life. Wouldn't it be fitting to write about women, and their struggles, and the injustices against them.
I go home and tell Jean this. He says nothing, but smiles, as if he's known this all along and hasn't told me. In my chambers I go to sleep that night and think;
If you would reflect well and wisely, you would realize that those events you regard as personal misfortunes have served a useful purpose even in this worldly life, and indeed have worked for your betterment.
*Above an original quote by Christine de Pizan